


Fresh and New

by Lady Divine (fhartz91)



Series: Outside Edge [24]
Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe, Blaine Friendly, Boyfriends, Ice Skating, Light Angst, M/M, Romance, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-26 07:39:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12054375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fhartz91/pseuds/Lady%20Divine
Summary: In an effort to know one another better, Kurt asks a question that strikes a nerve in both Sebastian and Blaine.





	Fresh and New

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place some time after "Movie Night" with a comment that refers back to that chapter so if you haven't read it, do :)

“Okay …” Kurt grins at his own genius as Sebastian slides in front of him, takes his hands, and they begin to skate “… for the grand prize and all of the marbles …”

“Hit me.” Sebastian twirls Kurt once, then slips an arm around his waist. Kurt responds with a hand on Sebastian’s shoulder.

“What is your absolute favorite thing about skating on freshly surfaced ice?” Kurt strokes with his right blade and glides forward, matching a rhythm Sebastian sets as he mirrors Kurt’s glide in reverse. It’s an hour before twilight. The rays of setting sun light the ice of Sebastian’s private rink, making it look like they’re skating on a lake of gold.

“I think the cuts that I make,” Sebastian answers without any effort spent on thinking. “Looking back at the ice and knowing that I put those marks there, from the crazy, zig-zag cuts to the divots and the sheers. For me, it’s exhilarating.”

Kurt nods, the corners of his mouth curling with the slight roll of his eyes. “Yup. Just as I suspected.”

“What’s that?”

“You’re a narcissist.”

From across the rink, where he’s working on his edges, Blaine snickers.

“That’s not what I mean,” Sebastian says, immediately jumping to the defensive. “Skating is an art. Skaters aren’t just the artists, we’re the tools that create it. But unless someone’s videoing us, we don’t get a chance to see it. Those cuts we make on the ice, _those_ we can see. It’s proof of what we did. We leave them behind after our performance is complete. And when I’m done, I can go back and examine the curves and the swirls and remember. But not just that. They’re so telling. Sometimes they reveal things that I didn’t know about myself, like where I put my weight, how tight my spins were, if I cut out of a move too early or if I landed uneven. It’s a way of communicating with myself, gauging my own progress, which is important to me even more now that I don’t have a coach.”

“Wow,” Kurt says, the sarcasm in his eyes and smile gone as Sebastian’s own eyes dart to his skates. “That’s … so deep. I never thought about it that way.”

“Yeah, well, that’s me.” Sebastian raises Kurt’s arm and spins him, smirking when their eyes meet. “I’m deep as _fuck_.” Kurt laughs, but Blaine, working on his power pulls, is conspicuously silent. “How about you?”

“I …” Kurt looks from his boyfriend’s face to the windows across the ice, the light flooding through them filling the rink with a beautiful but painfully bright glow. “I used to make it a point not to be one of the first people out on the ice. So, until recently, I really didn’t give it much thought because I didn’t skate on the ice right after it was resurfaced. I always waited until everyone else got on.”

Sebastian tilts his head in confusion, utterly perplexed as to why any skater, especially one of Kurt’s caliber, wouldn’t jump at the chance to be first out on a freshly cut surface. “Why?”

“It just didn’t seem right.” Kurt shifts his weight back, pulling Sebastian towards him and changing directions. “It didn’t seem like I should get that honor. I mean, I had no doubt that I belonged on the ice with all of the other freestyle skaters, it’s just … being the first one out? It seemed like it should go to someone bigger than me. That’s all.”

“I used to make sure I was _always_ the first person out on the ice,” Sebastian admits with a heavy swallow. Kurt slides the hand resting on Sebastian’s shoulder to his neck, starts massaging the muscles there.

“That’s not a bad thing,” he says reassuringly, imagining a young, smug Sebastian tossing on his skates, tying them tight, then barreling onto the ice; the pride he must have felt being the first one on. Kurt knows a lot of kids like that, who rush through their off-ice warm-ups the second they see the Zamboni take its last turn on the ice just so they can have the honor of being first. Some of them don’t even wait until the driver has shoveled the last of the snow and closed the bay doors. They leap on and take off with their mothers yelling warnings behind them, stroking or racing or striking whatever graceful pose they’ve stretched enough to hit, sailing across the sleek surface like majestic ships on a calm sea.

Kurt understands why Sebastian is upset, but he has to admit, even at his cruelest, Sebastian was one of the most graceful skaters to ever hit the ice.

He deserved to be first.

“Yeah, well, all things considered,” Sebastian says, leaning into his boyfriend’s fingers, “I can’t help but feel like it is.”

“How about you, Blaine?” Kurt asks when their path and his path intersect, changing the subject slightly. “What’s your favorite thing about skating on fresh ice?”

“My favorite thing about skating on fresh ice …” Blaine starts, the focus never leaving his face as he glides along on one leg, with Kurt and Sebastian changing speed to follow “… is hearing the noise my blades make – the swish-swish when I’m stroking, or the roar when I’m doing power pulls. That clap like thunder when I land a triple perfectly. Nothing tops that. It’s the most amazing sound in the world.”

“And you called _me_ a narcissist,” Sebastian whispers. With a scrunch of his lips, Kurt reaches further up Sebastian’s neck and tugs sharply at a strand of his hair, shushing his boyfriend without saying a word.

“When I first started skating,” Blaine continues, “when I first knew that skating was all I wanted to do for the rest of my life, my parents would take me to the rink closest to our house to practice. We’d go during public skate but after school let out, when they knew it would be busiest. You see, my dad didn’t originally like the idea of having a figure skater for a son, so my parents tried to discourage me whenever they could. They wouldn’t buy me my own skates, so I had to use those awful rentals. The blades would be covered in rust, and they were never sharpened. My folks also filled my after-school schedule with soccer and Tae Kwon Do, so by the time we got there, the ice was so cut up that even the good skaters were falling all over themselves. But none of that mattered to me, because even a bad day on the ice was a good day, you know?”

Blaine changes direction with a long, wistful sigh. Kurt and Sebastian pull closer together, nearly hugging one another as the distance between them and Blaine drifts farther apart.

“Eventually, when I showed no sign of stopping, they realized they weren’t going to have a soccer player or a martial artist for a son, so they broke down. They got me lessons, a coach, and a new pair of skates. I remember the first time I got fitted for skates, my father said, ‘Just promise me this won’t make you gay.’ The thing is that … I already was.” Blaine lowers his leg and glides to a stop. “I knew I wasn’t like him, or my brother. I didn’t want the relationships that they had. I saw myself with a family and kids, but with a handsome husband, not a beautiful bride, and … I didn’t think there was anything strange about it, or wrong with it. I was so young then, it never dawned on me how much my dad would hate me if I was gay. When you’re a kid, that’s not something you ever see happening. It’s unfathomable.”

Blaine’s shoulders drop. Sebastian and Kurt look at one another – Kurt with a furrowed brow and sympathetic eyes; Sebastian with the same sympathy, but also a hint of annoyance. Kurt’s brow furrows further, and Sebastian rolls his eyes.

“Okay,” Sebastian says. “You win.”

Blaine spins around to face the hugging couple, his eyebrows high on his forehead. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Sebastian says as Blaine bounces on his toe picks. “You definitely had the saddest story. So, what will it be?”

“Goony Golf!” Blaine cheers, zooming towards the edge of the rink to take off his skates.

“Next time, can we just draw straws or pick numbers to see who gets to choose what we do on Friday night?” Kurt asks. He tries to follow Blaine, but gets pulled back into Sebastian’s arms instead. And that’s where he stays because being held by Sebastian is better than miniature golf any day, even with one of his best friends. “It’s less depressing.”

“We’re bonding,” Sebastian explains. “I thought _you_ were the one who wanted us all to get to know one another better. That includes the good and the bad, babe.”

“Yeah, but between my mom, your parents, and his dad, I’m going to start drinking before I get to college!”

Sebastian chuckles, hugging Kurt tighter since he knows the next words out of his mouth might get him a smack on the arm. “Those are strong words from a man who can’t handle his sparkling cider.”


End file.
